Japanese bombs rained down on Pearl Harbor 66 years ago this morning, and what followed was a lesson in perseverance that Americans today would do well to remember.

The attack killed 2,390 soldiers, sailors and civilians and damaged much of America’s Pacific fleet. Afterward, victory was anything but pre-ordained.

Indeed, in the months that followed, Imperial Japan drove the British from Hong Kong, Singapore and Burma, the Dutch from Indonesia and the US from the Philippines.

But the American people, in the words of one Japanese admiral’s prophetic warning, were “filled with a terrible resolve” for victory. Tide-turning sea battles in the Coral Sea and at Midway were followed by fierce island-to-island fighting, an unconditional Japanese surrender – and a 60-year commitment (so far) to preserve the peace that followed.

Such a resolution was not foreseeable on that fateful December morning.

But one thing the generation that won World War II certainly lacked was politicians determined to paint every setback as a sign of failure – or every sign of progress as an excuse to declare victory and come home to a false peace.

Comparisons between WWII and the present conflict are – to put it mildly – inexact. But on Sept. 11, 2001, just as on Dec. 7, 1941, sudden treachery awakened America to the sort of enemy it faces.

Six-plus years on, the present war’s outcome is far from certain.

Who knows what surprises the coming decades will bring for the Muslim world? Turbulence, for sure, but maybe a measure of peace, as well.

And if the fitful, but hopeful, history of post-WWII Asia is a fair template, courage and resolve will pay dividends for America and its allies, too.